Several times a year, the government publishes new data that tracks both internet penetration and download speeds in the nation’s constituencies. Across the eight constituencies within Wiltshire, Swindon records the best figures compared to its neighbours. Find a rundown of all Wiltshire constituencies below.
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Why Internet Access is Important
Across the country, British cities have committed to upgrading the technology used to manage urban centres. Swindon is no different, having adopted road sensors to better manage traffic. It’s also the home of one of Intel’s Ignition Labs, sites dedicated to Internet of Things research. Broadly, these efforts bring Swindon closer to being a smart city.
However, smart cities rely a lot on wireless connectivity and internet access. So, it’s important that residents can get online and load services that range from administrative to entertainment use cases. Most businesses today operate online in some capacity, with many like e-commerce or iGaming stored wholly on websites. There, users can shop or stream live table games like blackjack found at https://casino.betfair.com/game/live-blackjack-cptl, where the game is managed by a real person and broadcast to its audience via the internet. As online services become more sophisticated, internet speeds will need to keep pace so that customers can still access them. If that doesn’t happen, it could spell trouble for every business that relies on the internet.
Swindon & Wiltshire’s Internet Figures
The government’s data is split between parliamentary constituencies, eight of which lie in Wiltshire after the boundaries were redrawn in 2023. The full details of the redraw can be found here - https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/boundary-review-2023-which-seats-will-change/.
The constituencies have been ordered by best to worst, by gigabit availability and average download speeds.
Swindon South
Compared to other Wiltshire constituencies, the now slightly smaller Swindon South still leads the pack with 96% gigabit availability. This means that 96% of households can maintain speeds of 1 gigabit per second, once registered with an internet service provider. This is higher than the national average for the whole island, which is at 78.5%.
As for download speeds, fixed broadband lines in Swindon South get 192 Mbps. This is a mean average for the whole of the constituency. It’s also the second highest download speed in Wiltshire, only slightly beaten by Swindon North.
Swindon North
Joint-first with Swindon South, Swindon North has less gigabit availability but beats their southern neighbours at download speeds. It should be noted that the North constituency is considerably bigger than the South, especially after the redraw.
North records that 90.2% of households have at least one gigabit per second internet speeds. Then for download speeds, they beat the south with a mean average download speed of 207 Mbps.
Wiltshire’s Other Constituencies
Outside of Swindon, Salisbury leads the other Wiltshire constituencies. It trails behind with 76.1% gigabit availability and 166 Mbps download speeds. This makes sense, as Salisbury was one of the first UK cities to get Openreach’s full-fibre broadband infrastructure - https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2020/06/12/salisbury-gets-full-fibre-in-less-than-12-months/.
The next best internet is found in Chippenham, which recorded 75.5% gigabit availability and 135 Mbps download speeds. South West Wiltshire follows not far behind with exactly 75% gigabit availability, though this has likely increased since data was gathered. However, South West Wiltshire has better download speeds than Chippenham at 150 Mbps.
Next is the newly formed East Wiltshire constituency. While vast, it has just 56.8% gigabit availability. For those who have good internet, download speeds are about equal to Chippenham at 134 Mbps.
Parts of the South Cotswolds edge into Wiltshire, which has a 50% gigabit availability with 115 Mbps. This is to be expected, as a heavily rural area celebrated for its natural beauty.
Lastly, the new combined Melkshire and Devizes constituency recorded the worst stats in Wiltshire. Gigabit availability was recorded at 45.3% in this new, much larger constituency than the old North Wiltshire boundaries. The average download speeds here were the first to dip under 100, at 92 Mbps.
For the foreseeable future, Swindon will be the best place in Wiltshire when it comes to internet and download speeds. At the other end of Wiltshire, Salisbury posts the second-highest figures that still don’t come close to Swindon’s yet, but that could change in the future.
